


Arlendjra's Favor

by Zaela



Category: Original Work
Genre: Body Horror, Bugs, Gen, Horror, Medical stuff, Worms, leeches, otherworldly nightmare
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-02
Updated: 2019-03-21
Packaged: 2019-05-17 08:39:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14829005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zaela/pseuds/Zaela
Summary: An otherworldly beast wants a favor from Melanie.





	1. Corrosion Woods

I. Corrosion Woods

I don’t really know what brought me out to that weird stone monument in the middle of our local wooded park. Besides the now defunct Ardenia Chemical Company, the monument is what puts us on the map, and even still, almost no one visits it anymore. It’s just three large stones stacked like a gate, but they look like they fell down over the years and walking through it would probably just get you killed. The few tourists we got would do it sometimes. It wouldn’t be our fault if they got themselves killed being irresponsible, but there was a warning sign just in case.

I came out to the woods to get away from my mom that evening. I was 16, a junior in high school, and I sucked at it. Arguing over my sub-par grades was a common occurrence in our house. If I ever did my homework, it would be in the dead of night. Since I didn’t sleep like a normal person, I was always tired during class. If I was even awake in class, I was probably distracted by something. She thought I was just being lazy or something, and I guess she was right. I felt bad about how I was doing, but I didn’t have the energy to improve. Everyday I would come home and just lay there in bed listening to Portishead or Joy Division or something until I fell asleep. I’d wake up for dinner, and then play video games until night, and then I’d do my homework just often enough to barely pass my classes. I’ll freely admit I was a mess, but when Mom would call me a mess instead of trying to help me or anything, it just made me feel even worse, and I would get even less productive.

It was kind of chilly out, but I didn’t mind. Thankfully it was still pretty warm for late October. All I needed was a simple jacket. The sun was well on its way to setting. My parents had finished dinner by now. I didn’t get the chance to eat anything before I stormed out. I sat down against one of the standing stones of the monument and put my face in my knees. I knew I didn’t have too much school left before I could graduate and go to college and move away, if I could even get into college anywhere. Maybe my mom was right and I was just being lazy.

I picked up my head and looked at the horizon. I thought there would still be another half hour or so before the sun fell, but it was already pretty dark. Before long I’d have to rely on the light from my phone to see clearly, or just let my eyes adjust, and Mom would certainly be annoyed that I stayed out after dark. Before I started walking home I reached for my phone, but the pocket it had been in was empty. I was certain it must have just fallen out while I was kneeling or something, or maybe I put it in a different pocket without thinking. After checking all of my pockets and the small area around where I had been sitting, I finally found it had somehow ended up a couple feet away, on the other side of the stone.

“How the hell did it get over there?” I mumbled to myself.

I got down on my hands and knees and stretched myself out through the arch of the monument to reach for my phone. After grabbing it, I pulled myself all the way through. 

In the blink of an eye, the scenery had changed again. I was indoors now, in what looked like some shitty old corporate building. The floors were dirty linoleum. There weren’t any lights in the low ceiling, but the edifice was inexplicably well lit despite that. It was still dim inside, but not so much so that I would need an extra light to see.

Behind me, there was just a dead-end. I tried pressing my hand up against it, hoping I would just somehow end up back at Ardenia City Forest, but it was just a normal wall. My heart was racing. This couldn’t be reality. I had to be dreaming or something. I thought maybe if I was cognizant of being asleep I could manipulate the dream around me, I could end up somewhere else, but nothing worked. I was properly terrified now. I hesitantly began walking through the hallway, looking for any indication as to where I was. There were a few doors, but none of them went anywhere. There was no sign of life anywhere in this building. As I walked further in I thought I could hear the dissonant sounds of someone singing in the distance like an off-key choir. It wasn’t particularly pleasant, but it made me think maybe I would be able to find someone else here.

As I continued my search through the empty building, I thought I heard footsteps behind me. They definitely weren’t my own. I was wearing sneakers, and the footsteps I was hearing had a loud clacking sound, like heels. I turned on my heel and began running in the other direction, back towards where I started. If there was someone else here, they could tell me what the hell was going on.

I soon discovered those footsteps were echoing from a room I hadn’t noticed on my first time through the hallway. There was no door attached to the entryway, and the interior appeared to be made of different material entirely. It looked like it was carved entirely out of stone. There was no way these were part of the same building. I took a hesitant step inside and as I did a large stone door slammed shut behind me. The lighting inside was reminiscent of fire light, but there were no fires or torches in sight. At the back of the room, the thing that was making the footstep sounds caught my attention.

Alone, in the back of the room, there was a young man standing with a carved wooden stick. He was naked, but he didn’t have any of the proper anatomy a boy was suppose to have. It was almost like I was looking at a doll. Despite that, I tried not to look directly at him. He tapped his stick against the floor a few times forcefully and smiled. It sounded just like someone in heels. I looked around for evidence of anything else inside the room, but it was just the two of us. There was no furniture, or evidence of food or waste, and the door I had entered through had vanished.

“Hey, where the hell are we? One minute I was in the park and the next minute I’m here-”

The man thrust his stick into the floor with great force. My words were drowned out by a cascade of echoes from the stick. He wasn’t smiling anymore. I took a few steps back. I was beginning to think he might try to mug me or something. I reached into my jacket pocket for the pocket knife I usually carried, but it was gone. My phone had disappeared again too.

A toothy smile grew across the man’s face before he unhinged his jaw and shoved his free hand down his throat and pulled out my cell phone. I was speechless. While he showed me what he had he wouldn’t stop grinning. I was beginning to think this guy was getting a kick out of how terrified I was. I ran back to the far wall and started searching for the doorway I came in through, but it had vanished like it never even existed. I turned around to look at the man. He was still holding my phone, but he wasn’t trying to use it. He began drawing closer. Each step was slow and calculated. I had backed myself up against the wall. There weren’t many places I would be able to run when he got close.

With unimaginable speed, the man whipped my phone at me. I barely had time to get out of the way. It ended up catching me in the arm. The phone’s screen exploded into a flurry of glass and plastic. A small shard of the screen lodged itself in my face, right above my eye. I managed to avoid getting hurt beyond a couple of nicks and cuts on my arms.

The man was almost within arm’s reach now. I tried to slip away from him and run along the wall, but he swung his cane and hit me squarely on the knee. I tripped and clutched my injured leg. It was impressive how fast the man could move. I couldn’t understand why he walked so slow and lumbering. I tried to get up again. It wasn’t easy with my knee, but I wasn’t going to just sit there and let this creepy thing get any closer. Once I took my first step the man’s cane swung around and hit me in the same knee with a loud crack. I collapsed onto the ground again. Moving that leg was agonizing. I think it was broken.

The man stood over me now. He leaned down and pushed me onto my back. I tried to kick and knee and punch him, but any time I moved too much he would press down against my broken knee. Now, as he stood over me like a beast that caught its prey, I noticed his eyes weren’t human. He had no iris. It was just white, and then black in the center. His nose didn’t have nostrils either. The thing leaned over me and something fell from its mouth onto me. It was an earthworm. Those were harmless, despite being kind of slimy. As soon as I let myself feel a little relieved it heaved and vomited a bundle of different kinds of worms onto me. I only recognized some earthworms and leeches, but there were others too. Some of them were really thin, I could feel them writhing around on my body. I was so glad I was wearing a jacket right now. The man got onto his hands and knees, pressing down on my arms and legs, forcing me to look up at him as more worms dripped from his mouth. 

The man heaved again and I could see a large body at the back of his mouth. I had never seen a worm so big before. It looked like it was as thick as my wrist. It took its sweet time wriggling out of the thing’s mouth. Finally, the worm fell from the man’s mouth and landed in the middle of my chest. The man fell over. I could see some small thin worms breaking free from his eyes and mouth. The worm he had deposited on my chest was disturbingly heavy. It felt like i had a person sitting on my chest. I tried to push myself up but I was stuck. I tried to push it off of me, but it wouldn’t budge. I could at least brush all of those gross smaller worms off of me, but I was helpless before the giant one that crawled closer and closer to my face.

The thing was creeping up on my mouth now. I clamped my teeth shut, but it pressed against them with great force. If I didn’t open my mouth, I would have probably lost my teeth to that thing. After that it forced itself inside my mouth and continued its slow crawl. I tried to bite down on the thing’s awful flesh, and hopefully cut it in half and kill it, but my teeth wouldn’t leave a mark on its skin. What was this thing? As the thing slid past my trachea, I fought and struggled for a single breath. It moved quickly enough down my esophagus to allow me breathing within the minute. Even though I could breathe and move again, I could still feel it sliding into my stomach. It was unsettling and unpleasant. I remember hearing somewhere that triggering your gag reflex can make you vomit, so I stuck my finger down my throat, but all I did was gag and dry heave. Nothing came out at all, and I felt hot and clammy. As the worm slid into my stomach, I began to feel light headed. I sat down and put my head between my knees. At least the other worms that thing had vomited up were ignoring me. I closed my eyes and concentrated on staying conscious. A cool breeze blew across me. When I opened my eyes I was back outside, but I could still feel that thing squirming in my stomach.


	2. II. The Frigid World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Melanie is very sick.

II. The Frigid World

After a long walk home, I ignored my family and went straight to my room where I curled up on my bed. I couldn’t feel whatever I had been forced to swallow anymore, but I still felt disgusting and slimy. Before falling asleep I pulled my bedspread over me. For whatever reason the room felt frigid. It was only about 8:00 PM, but I was exhausted after the weird events in the forest.

I dreamt about that strange building I was trapped in for the entire night. I was always being chased by something, and there was nowhere to run. Before long I’d run into a dead end, and the thing chasing me would catch up, and everything would restart. The layout of the building changed each time. I never got a clear idea of what was chasing me. I woke up at 6:30 the next morning to my mom knocking on the door.

“Melanie, it’s time to wake up,” She said softly.

“I’m up. I’m moving,” I replied.

For some reason I was still feeling kind of cold. I grabbed a fresh change of clothes and brought them into the bathroom. I turned the bathwater on as hot as it would go. Hopefully that would be enough to warm me up. After a minute I put my hand under the running water. Normally this would be a bit too hot for me, but it felt fine right now. I spent longer than usual in the shower. My mom had to come upstairs and knock on the door to tell me to get out before she left for work.

I just barely managed to catch the bus to school. I still had to chase it a little bit to hop on. For once whatever was ailing me was working to my advantage. I wasn’t hungry in the slightest, and if I had stopped to grab breakfast I definitely would have missed the bus. I was beginning to think maybe it would have been a good idea to stay home sick today. I zoned out for most of the bus ride and replayed the events of the previous evening again and again in my head, trying to make some sense of all of it. I snapped out of it long enough to make it to my first period class, Algebra 2. Once I sat down I started to zone out again until someone prodded my shoulder. My friend Sarah sat down in the desk next to mine and was looking at me with an intense worry.

“Melanie, you don’t look so good,” She said.

“How do you mean?” I asked.

“I dunno. Your skin is super pale. Your eyes look watery,” Sarah pressed the back of her hand against my forehead. I didn’t do anything to try to stop her. “Oh my god! You’re burning up. You should really go home and get some rest.”

I shook my head and smiled at her. “I feel fine. Maybe you’re just really cold.”

Sarah frowned. “I’m not kidding. You should really try to get some rest.”

“I’m fine. I just feel a little cold is all. I can manage some chills.”

Sarah shrugged. “I’m not going to force you to do anything. You might want to avoid spacing out like that if you want your parents to get off your ass though.”

I nodded to her. Maybe yesterday was just a fever dream. I hoped that was it. I pressed a my fingers into my stomach. I didn’t feel anything particularly unusual in there, but it was still unnerving to have swallowed a giant worm, even if it was just a vivid nightmare.

I managed to pay attention for most of my first period class. It took some concentration to keep myself from thinking about the worm, but I found it a welcome distraction. Thankfully we didn’t have any tests or quizzes today. I even managed to take some decent notes during the class. After the bell rang my teacher called me up to the front of the class. Mr. Waters was a well liked teacher by the students. He was good at keeping things interesting, and explaining difficult equations in an easy to understand manner. He looked concerned, just like Sarah, and pretty much said the same thing to me. I rattled off some joke about needing my morning coffee and left. I was honestly starting to get a little annoyed about everyone telling me I looked like shit.

Second period was almost identical to the first one. A couple people told me I looked really sick, and they told me I should go home. I was too stubborn for that. I waved aside their concerns and tried to concentrate. I fell asleep no less than five minutes after the class started. The teacher took sympathy on me and didn’t call me out for it anything.

It wasn’t long before I slipped into a dream. In the background I could still hear the lesson from school, but it was faint. I was back inside the strange building from yesterday evening. It felt real, like I was there again for some reason. After checking and seeing that there was no way out behind me, I began walking. It didn’t take long for me to find myself entering a completely alien looking room. Instead of being lit by some dim omnipresent light, there were candles crudely melted into the wall. Again, I had nowhere to go but forward. I didn’t have to walk far before I found someone sitting atop a crude stone chair set in the middle of the back wall. It was hard to tell who exactly I was looking at. Their features seemed inconsistent. They appeared to be human-like. I was the first to speak. I was pretty set on getting out of this creepy place, and I was starting to feel nauseous as well. 

“Did you bring me here again? Is this even real?” I asked.

The figure shook its head from atop its throne. “This is a place we share, vessel.”  
I didn’t like the epithet it gave me. I assumed it was referring to the worm that had crawled down my throat.

“I want to go home,” I said. My attempt to be assertive came out whiny, like a petulant child. It didn’t help that I felt like I could throw up any minute.

“First we must seal our pact.”  
I looked at the figure with disdain. A moment later, I fell to my knees and began to retch. The figure rested its arm in its hand on the throne’s armrest.

“It will all be over soon, vessel. Do not fret.”

I glared at the figure after I finished vomiting what little was left in my stomach. “You put that worm thing in me?” I asked after spitting into the small puddle of my sick a couple of times.

“Indeed. It was myself, but we are the same now. You will feel better once I finish fixing you.”

“Fixing” was an alarming term to hear. It wasn’t making me feel any better. The being could see just how frightened I was by expression alone, but it kept going.

“You are now the vessel of the beast Aarlendjra.”

I shook my head at it, trying to fight back tears. “I’m Melanie, not some weird monster.”

I think the figure smiled at me wryly. I vomited again. A lot more came out this time. There was a large splotch of red on the floor in front of me. After spitting again and wiping my lips on my sleeve, I looked at the figure again, silently begging for answers or guidance. Nothing more was said before it lazily waved me away. It was still wearing that wry smile as the building faded away.

I jumped awake the classroom with almost enough energy to fall out of my seat. I scared a couple of my classmates too. Before anyone, myself included, could respond, I vomited all over the floor next to me. There was a lot of red mixed in. The teacher called 911, a couple of kids threw up too, and one even passed out. My stomach felt like it was going to destroy itself. 

The teacher had everyone sent down to the library while we waited for the room to be cleaned. I was sent to the front office to wait for the ambulance. Hopefully my parents wouldn’t have to sell any organs to pay for this. I was pretty sure they would be able to cover this. Dad worked for an insurance firm. Mom did something in an office for a struggling local company.

I got sick two more times while I waited for the ambulance. My mom left work to come to the school and wait with me. She looked like she was trying really hard to keep herself together. She talked with one of the secretaries for a little bit before she sat down next to me and rubbed my back.

“It’ll be okay, Mel.” I’m pretty sure she was trying to reassure herself more than me.

“I know. I’m sorry about yesterday…”

“You don’t need to apologize hun.” Mom continued rubbing my back.  
The ambulance arrived after a half-hour wait. My stomach still hurt like something was tearing it up inside. I was able to walk, but I was still laid down on a stretcher. I spaced out for most of the ride. I thought about that figure. Maybe this whole thing was just something I dreamed up because I was sick, maybe even dying. It would’ve been a lot simpler if that were the case.

Everything between boarding the ambulance and getting laid down in a hospital bed in the emergency room was a bit of a blur. After everything settled down and it was time to wait for some tests, I fell asleep.

While I was unconscious, I thought I could hear my mom and someone else talking, but I couldn’t tell what either of them were saying. The hallway outside my room had vanished, and had been replaced by the strange edifice I had been inside of when I talked to that weird featureless being. I got out of my bed and began to walk to the door. I needed to get answers from the figure. After I got up, my mother and the other person in the room stopped talking for a moment. Before I could make it to the door, I felt arms on me, holding me in the hospital room.

I was actually standing a few feet from the door for some reason. My mother had wrapped her arm around me while the nurse in the room frantically tried to figure out what to do about my sudden bout of sleepwalking.

“Sorry. I was having a really vivid dream,” I said.

“You need rest right now, hun. The doctor said you’re anemic. I’ll be here with you,” Mom said.

I was pretty sure I’d heard that word before, but I couldn’t remember what it meant off the top of my head, and the context wasn’t giving me any help either. “Anemic?” 

“You’ve suffered from blood loss. I’d like to perform some more tests, and do a scan of your stomach and the area around it. We’ll be able to do that in a little bit. In the meantime you should rest,” The doctor explained.

After rattling off all of that information, and making sure I was put back into bed, the doctor left. It didn’t take long for me to drift off again.

I awoke again when I felt my bed moving. The doctor was rolling me down the hall, to wherever it was they kept their CT scan machines. They gave me one of those and some X-rays too, to see if I had a bone puncturing my stomach or my esophagus or something. They’d already determined it wasn’t caused by stomach acid, I was told. After they were done sticking me in machines, they let me back to my bed, and took me back to my emergency room so I could wait with my mother while I lulled into unconsciousness again.

When I woke, my mom was sobbing next to me, and a nurse was preparing my bed to move again.

“They think they might be able to find a way to deal with that thing. I- I’ve never seen anything like it. You’re doing the right thing. The Artmunds have contributed a lot to medical science in the last few years. If anything, you’re lucky they’re taking an interest in this.”

I think he was trying to reassure her. The Artmunds were a familiar name. It was hard to imagine how they would fix whatever was wrong with me. Around here they weren’t very highly regarded. They were the ones who drove the Ardenia Chemical Company out of business after all. A lot of people lost their jobs because of them. My mom appeared to be consoled by their involvement. Her crying diminished to sniffling and the occasional tear. Before I could say goodbye to her, the nurse rolled me away.

I watched the walls of the hospital as I was rolled by. I wasn’t trying to keep track of where they were taking me. I was too exhausted for that. It kept my mind occupied. It was better than trying to figure out why my mother was crying, or why the nurse at my headboard looked so grim. When he pushed me into an elevator, and the wheels of my bed weren’t making a racket, I looked up at him.

“What’s wrong with me,” I asked. The hoarseness of my voice caught me off guard, and it surprised the nurse as well.

“It’s… There’s something wrong with your stomach. We’re going to do everything we can to help you, okay?” He obviously had to force himself to smile at her.

No shit there was something wrong with me. His non-answer was completely useless. He thought of me as a kid. Talking down to me and being vague wasn’t doing anything to protect me. If I really had a giant worm eating my stomach like my weird hallucinations were leading me to believe, I wanted them to be honest and just tell me about my killer stomach worm.

I didn’t ask the nurse to elaborate. I could tell how uncomfortable my condition was making him. I just decided to accept I was fucked and this was probably the end to my short and pathetic existence as a disappointment.

“Why are the Artmunds interested in me?” I finally asked.

The look of mild surprise surfaced on the Nurse’s face. He didn’t realize I was awake when he was talking to my mother. “They want to help you feel better too.”

What an unconvincing answer. The Artmunds were rich and famous capitalists. I was the daughter of a couple of middle class people. I didn’t continue to question this nurse. It was clear he saw me as a child. His non-answers would be useless to me. 

After waiting around for another couple of hours, someone new stepped into the room. It was a woman, a little older than my mother. I could tell she wasn’t on the hospital staff, but she wore a white coat like a doctor might. After she signed some paperwork, she and the nurse from earlier wheeled me into an ambulance.

“Where are we going?” I inquired.

“I landed my plane at a small airport nearby. You will be flown down to my lab in Florida,” The new woman explained.

“Who are you?”

“My name is Karla Artmund. You will call me Doctor Artmund. Do you understand, Melanie?”

I was a caught off guard when she said my name. She must’ve learned it when she was looking at that paperwork. I nodded to her. For a woman who was supposed to cure me of whatever my ailment was, she was awfully intimidating.

“Good. Do not speak to me unless I instruct you to. You may speak to my assistant Priscilla, instead.”

I didn’t see anyone else in the ambulance who fit the description of her assistant. She was alone with the driver and me. Karla didn’t tell me anything else. She was looking papers, probably my medical records. After a thirty minute ride in awkward silence, the ambulance’s engine cut out. The back door of the ambulance opened and a surly looking girl, who could have only been a few years older than me, began to work on wheeling me onto the small jet behind her. I shouldn’t have been surprised that Karla Artmund would have brought her private jet. They were one of the richest families in the country after all.

Once I was loaded onto the plane, my bed was positioned so I would be sitting up a bit. The girl who pulled me out of the ambulance was sitting across from me. She had a large water bottle full of something brown and fizzy. Karla sat away from the two of us, sipping at some wine and reading the local newspaper.

After we took off, the glowering girl got up and retrieved a clipboard from Karla before returning to her seat. After flipping through its pages, she looked at me with utter distaste.

“How did you activate the gate?” She asked, her tone accusatory.

“What?”

“The gate. Don’t tell me a big ass worm replaced your stomach and you weren’t going to the Mesoverse. How’d you activate it?” The girl took a long sip from her water bottle.

“Wait? What’s wrong with my stomach?”

The girl huffed and rolled her eyes. “Of course that bitch of a nurse didn’t tell you. You don’t have a stomach anymore. You belong to whatever tried to claim you.”

I felt chills all across my body. Blood drained from my face while I tried to process what she told me. That dream where I swallowed the worm was actually real. Nausea washed over me like a tidal wave. The girl scoffed again.

“If you get sick on yourself, I’m not cleaning it up.”

I looked at her in abject horror. I was amazed that she would actually say something like that to me when I had just learned my stomach was swallowed by some monster.

“What do you mean? That place was real? I thought it was just a fever dream. There’s no way…” 

The girl swore under her breath and took another long swig from the bottle. “Start from the beginning. When did weird stuff start happening. Spare no detail.”

I swallowed my urge to burst into tears and nodded. I gave her as detailed an account as I could, starting with my trip out to the forest the day before. I couldn’t believe that was only yesterday. It felt like a lot more time had passed since then. When I was done telling my story, the girl nodded.

“We had figured the stone monument of Ardenia was a Gate. It was why Karla bought the chemical company ten years back. She’d intended to convert their plant to a lab for the Artmund company. Then the economy got all fucked. You gave us a good enough reason to start researching the area again. Good job, taking one for the team.” The girl actually smiled a little bit.

“I’m still lost though… what was that place?”

“It’s a place called the Mesoverse. I can explain to you further once we’ve made sure you’re not gonna die. Whoever wanted you really did a number on your guts.”

I shook my head in disbelief. I wanted to believe this was a dream. It had been hard to tell what was what all day. The girl across from me smiled a little more.

“It’s hard to believe at first. You’ll get used to it.” She finished the last of what was in her bottle.

I leaned my head back against the hospital bed. This all seemed so fake and surreal. I just wanted to go to sleep and wake up in my bed at home the next morning. Talking to this girl had been enough to keep me awake, but now that she was done questioning me, I realized how exhausted I was. Seeing that she had nothing else to say, and I had nothing else to focus on, I fell asleep again. This sleep was dreamless and for the first time since I went to that weird Mesoverse place, it was kind of peaceful.


	3. III. Quarantine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm taking a break from the Mesoverse Project after this. Hope you enjoy!

III. Quarantine 

The wealth the Artmund family possessed was absurd. They had an airstrip built in their primary laboratory compound in Florida. Neither Karla nor Priscilla seemed to think much of this. This was normal for them. After we landed, they wheeled me off of the plane and into a building on the campus. They all looked similar, but this one had two sets of locking doors. After wheeling me inside, we passed a couple of armed guards standing at the entrance. I was starting to think I had reason to worry.

I looked up at the women pulling me deeper into the facility, but I couldn’t glean any comforting expression off of either one. They were paying more attention to the bed I was in than me. After wheeling me into an elevator in the center of the building, I began to get an idea of just how big this building was. There were fifteen basement floors. I had never been in a building that went this deep underground. It was only a few stories tall above ground. I wondered if the other buildings were like this too.

They brought me down to the eleventh basement floor and began wheeling me through the labyrinth of halls. Karla stopped us outside of one of the rooms and looked to Priscilla.

“Take Melanie to her room. I need to run some tests with the Snake,” Karla said. 

Priscilla sighed. One of her eyes twitched a little bit. “She’d probably like it if you called her by her name, you know.”

Karla had started to open the door to “the Snake’s” room and glared at Priscilla. Priscilla huffed and began pushing my bed again. After a few more minutes of walking, Priscilla pulled me into an empty bedroom. It had a stationary bed, a toilet and shower stall in the corner, and a small dresser for some of my belongings. The sterile white lighting, the neutral walls, and the cold linoleum floor resembled a hospital room. Priscilla pulled me up next to my new bed.

“Can you get up or do you need help getting into your real bed?” She asked.

“I think I can get myself up,” I answered.

I was already sitting up, and I was shaky putting weight on my feet, but I managed to slide off of the bed and onto the linoleum floor. It was chilly against my bare feet. Laying down on the bed was a lot easier than getting up. Gravity did most of the hard work. After making sure I was as comfortable as I could be, Priscilla left to tend to other issues. 

Over the next few hours I lulled in and out of consciousness. A few nurses were in and out of my room during that time, tending to me and making sure I was okay. Every once in awhile I felt a slight pin-prick on my arm.

When I started to properly return to consciousness, my vision had become completely unfocused and blurry. It reminded me of when I tried my dad’s glasses on as a little kid. All I could tell was that there was a human-like blob in the doorway with a lot of dark red at the top. The blob-person drew closer and helped me sit up, situating some pillows behind me to use as support.

“You’ve been out for a hot minute. Feeling any better?” The voice was Priscilla’s.

“I can’t see anything right.”

The blob’s weight shifted. “Yeah, it’s probably just a side effect from what we gave you. Are you sore at all though?”

I took a moment to really think about how I felt. I was definitely feeling better than the day before. My stomach wasn’t cramping, and as far as I could tell I didn’t feel as weak. We wouldn’t know for sure until I’d had something to drink and tried getting up, but I felt optimistic. If anything, I at least wasn’t suffering anymore.

“I think I’m feeling a bit better. It doesn’t hurt as much,” I said softly. “Is- Is that thing still inside of me?”

My vision was slowly growing sharper. The blob had taken the shape of Priscilla. She still wasn’t clear, but I could tell it was her without relying on her hair or her voice. Priscilla stepped away from the bed to fetch a rolling stool, like one that would be found in a doctor’s office.

“No, you’re stuck with that, but we’ve made some changes to it so it should just function like a stomach. If you start having any of those ‘vivid dreams’ again, you should probably call for one of us. It shouldn’t reject the medication we gave you at least.”

I put a hand against my stomach. It didn’t feel any different than it did most days. I was pretty sure Priscilla had mentioned something called a Mesoverse while we were on the company jet.

“Will I be able to go home?”

Priscilla’s expression darkened. “Nothing is set in stone yet… When you are released, you’ll have to sign a non-disclosure agreement though. We’ll see after we run a few tests, okay?”

I nodded. Priscilla began working on taking my vitals and listening to my stomach and lungs. I jumped a little bit when her stethoscope touched my chest. Her fingers and the head of the stethoscope were both frigid. Priscilla noticed my reaction to her touch and smiled sheepishly.

“Sorry about that. You’d think it’d get warmer here but since we’re underground it’s pretty constant.”

I shrugged. Staying here for a little bit might not be so bad. It was starting to get pretty cold back home. I might as well try to take advantage of the Florida heat while I was here. After Priscilla was done with the vitals, I started trying to put weight on my legs. Priscilla decided to stay close by in case I fell or needed help. My legs were still weak, but I was determined to get out of this room. The whole hospital vibe was making me anxious for some fresh air. I never felt comfortable enough to take all of my weight off the bed. I sat back down, defeated.

“Don’t feel too bad. Considering you were out for almost two months, you’re doing pretty well.”

“Sorry, I think I misheard you. Did you say two months?”

Priscilla nodded. “It’s a bit of a shock, isn’t it? Don’t worry. We’ll help you get back on your feet. It will take a lot of hard work, but you’ll get there. Hang in there, Melanie.” 

Priscilla began to leave the room. I wanted to call out to her and unload a deluge of questions I still had, but I let her go anyway. Priscilla had to be a busy woman. A few minutes after she left, Karla entered with a cart behind her. She set it next to my bed.

“Priscilla told me you woke. Tell me how you physically feel right now,” She commanded.

Karla still had an indomitable spirit about her. Everything she said felt calculated. Each word, each inflection, each syllable, it was like she had planned and foresaw this moment long ago. Frankly, I found her a little intimidating, terrifying even.

“I’m not sure if I’m queasy or I’m hungry, but it’s probably the latter. My legs don’t seem strong enough to stand on my own. Um- I think my vision is better than it was before. Was I really out two months like Priscilla said?”

“That is correct. The beast in your body put up a fight against being assimilated. It’s for the best that you were unconscious. You would have been in excruciating pain if you were awake,” Karla explained. While she spoke she prepared a needle to draw a blood sample from my arm.

I swallowed. She spoke so casually, like this wasn’t a huge medical anomaly.

“Um, how do you know so much about what that thing was?”

“Didn’t I instruct you to save your questions for Priscilla? I don’t have time to answer all of your mundane queries.”

“Right, sorry.”

Karla poked the needle into my elbow. I winced and tried not to look at the tubes she was filling up, but I remained silent. When she was done, she put a cotton ball and some tape over the tiny wound and dragged the cart back out of the room. 

Now alone again, I flopped back down onto the bed and looked at the ceiling. It was beginning to look like I’d be here for longer than I hoped. If they even did let me go home, it would probably after I’d built my legs back up.

A little while later, a nurse brought me a cart with a turkey sandwich on white bread, along with some water. The nausea I had described to Karla ended up being hunger. I wasn’t sure when I was last fed. They must have come up with something while I was unconscious. Either way, I tore into the sandwich like a starved carnivore. It was pretty bland, but it felt good to have something in my system again.

I spent the rest of the day in bed. A nurse brought me a button I could press to page them for help in case I needed to use the bathroom or if I got sick. To my relief, I never did get sick. My stomach took my earlier meal in stride, and I felt it start to hunger for more an hour later. I tried asking a nurse if there was a phone I could use to call my family and tell them I was improving. She said she would ask Karla, but she never got back to me with an answer.

The next morning, I woke up to a nurse bringing in a balanced breakfast on a cart. I didn’t have a clock in my room, but she greeted me like it was the morning. I was starving again. Eating quickly quelled my hunger pains. A few minutes after the nurse left, Priscilla entered, dragging a wheelchair behind her. Her hair was frizzy and unkempt, as if she hadn’t had the time to get ready. There were prominent dark circles under her eyes. She wasn’t wearing any makeup.

“Didn’t get any sleep last night?” I asked jovially.

“Quiet. Just get in the chair,” She murmured.

I didn’t expect such a response from her. She’d been chipper yesterday. I did as I was told in silence. She didn’t help me into the chair. I had to do it myself, using my atrophied body to maneuver myself into the chair. It wasn’t pleasant. More than once, I felt my balance begin to tip over the edge of the bed. Thankfully, I was able to correct myself before anything happened. I still ended up landing kind of funny in the chair. 

Now that I was seated, Priscilla wheeled me out of my bedroom. The hall was chilly. I would have liked to have something to cover my arms, but I was still dressed in a hospital gown. We traversed the halls in silence. After turning a corner, we almost bumped into a girl my age. She had blue hair that looked like it was just dyed recently. She was wearing a plain white dress. Her exposed arms were visibly toned.

“Priscilla.” She nodded.

“Oh, Arjola.” Priscilla pinched the bridge of her nose. “Where’s Dr. Artmund?”

“Busy.” Arjola leaned in and took a deep breath through her nose. “May I spend time with you and the beast?”

I frowned. “Excuse me?” I don’t know why what she said bothered me so much. It felt like an insult. Priscilla was still pinching her nose. She wasn’t going to stand up for me anytime soon.

“Arjola, you shouldn’t call people you don’t know beasts,” Priscilla explained in exasperation.

“Sorry.”

“You can come, but you should be quiet.”

“Thanks Priscilla!”

Priscilla continued pushing me. Arjola followed behind in silence. I didn’t see her blink once for the rest of the walk. She carried a creepy energy about her. The room Priscilla wheeled me to looked like a regular gym for physical therapy. Arjola sat down in the corner of the room and watched Priscilla set me up for whatever we had planned today. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but it seemed wrong when she pushed me to a spot where there was no equipment at all. There was at least a safety mat beneath me, but if I wanted to stand up, I’d just fall on my face. I gave Priscilla a questioning glance, but all I got in return was a look of disdain.

“Stand up,” Priscilla instructed.

I couldn’t believe her. She knew I had been unconscious for two months. There was no way someone could sleep that long and not suffer from muscle atrophy. Priscilla didn’t back down. She crossed her arms and repeated her earlier command.

“Just try to stand up. Trust me, this’ll take a hell of a lot shorter if you just try to do what I’m telling you to.”

It was hard to read Priscilla’s tone. I had no idea if she was trying to humiliate me or just being really negligent with my physical therapy. She had been pretty off today after all. It was within the realm of possibility that she was just letting out whatever frustration she had by making me fall on my face repeatedly while the blue haired girl watched in silence.

“What are you waiting for?” Priscilla grabbed my hand and pulled me up to my feet forcefully, then let go. It took me a moment before I noticed I was standing on my own. I looked down. Under the flesh of my legs, something was pulsing. It almost looked like a thick set of veins were trying to crawl through them.

“What the hell is this?” I fell backwards, onto my butt. I ran my hands over my legs, trying to find whatever that pulsating thing was, but it was gone now. Priscilla smiled.

“There ya go. You felt it didn’t you?”

“Fix it, get it out of me, whatever that thing is!”

“Look, kiddo. It’s the only reason you’re walking right now. We worked a long time to give you control of your parasite, so you’d better be thankful for that.”

“I don’t want this” I tried to sound brave, but my voice was quivering. I picked myself back up. That weird pulsating feeling returned to my legs.

“You’re lucky to be alive. Just let the worms take care of you for now.”

“There’s more than one?”

“That’s just how this beast works with its hosts. But like I said, you control them. They’re the only reason you can stand despite your muscle atrophy. Think of what you could do when you’re back at peak condition.”

I put my hand on my thigh and felt as a myriad of small organisms squirmed and slithered underneath. I was surprised it didn’t sting as much as I expected. I took a few unsure steps back over to the wheelchair and sat back down in it. The squirming in my legs stopped. Arjola got up and smiled.

“You’re like me now!” She exclaimed.

I didn’t get what she was so excited about. I didn’t like the feeling of things squirming inside of me when I tried to move. I didn’t want to be some weird freak like Arjola was. I was starting to miss home, despite all of the petty arguments I had with my parents over grades and school. At least it wasn’t here.

“So if I can walk and stuff can I go home?” I asked. Priscilla frowned. Arjola looked away. 

“Look, I’m sorry, but I’m not supposed to let you go. Karla still has a lot of research she wants to do. We’re worried that if we let you go, and you lost control, then you would be at risk of getting killed by that parasite again if it regained control.”

Priscilla’s explanation made sense, but I wasn’t really in the mood to listen to her justification. Besides, the Artmunds had billions of dollars. I didn’t see why I couldn’t just keep in contact with a doctor they contracted into research of Mesoverse parasites or whatever. 

“I mean, why couldn’t you guys just hire a doctor in my area. Didn’t you guys buy the chemical company back home or something?”

“Look, I’m sorry, but it is what it is. And the company barely uses the property in Ardenia. It’d be expensive as hell to just build a new compound there so you could make sure you’re healthy and stuff.”

I decided to drop it. If I kept arguing I would just work myself up more and more. It wasn’t worth starting a fight with one of the few generally approachable people at this lab. But I didn’t want to stay here either. I gripped the armrest of the wheelchair as tightly as I could. Worms writhed underneath the skin of my hands.

Priscilla could tell I was frustrated. She put a hand on my shoulder and smiled softly at me. “Come on, it won’t be so bad. Once we’re sure you’re fine I’ll talk to Karla about releasing you back to your family.”

I nodded solemnly and decided I just needed to keep my head down and work on recovering.

<><><>

Two months later, I was doing a lot better. I didn’t have to rely on the worms to walk anymore. I was even starting to get the strength back to run short periods without them. I felt like it was finally time to confront Karla about being released back to my home. I hadn’t shown any signs of complications from the worms, and I wasn’t on any medications that couldn’t be acquired without a prescription according to Priscilla. Everything should be easily done.

I didn’t see Karla for a few days yet. I was lucky that she decided to visit me that week. Sometimes she could be gone for weeks at a time, tending to other issues around the Artmund company. She gave me a basic checkup, checking my weight and lungs, as well as having me walk, jump, and jog for her among a few other exercises. Between activities, I opened my mouth to ask about leaving the compound, but Karla stopped me before a single word could escape.

“Don’t, Matthews. Don’t waste my time asking.”

“But-”

“Shut up.”

Karla had always been a little draconian, but she’d never been this rude to me. I was a little taken aback. If I let her outright silence me, I would never get out of this place.

“I want to go home!” I exclaimed

Karla sighed and looked up from her clipboard to look me over. A single lock of her tied-back blonde hair had escaped her ponytail and draped itself over her face. She lazily blew it out of the way. She looked more exasperated than angry. 

“I told you, asking was a waste of both of our time. You are staying here. The outside world does not need to know about the Mesoverse.”

The Mesoverse. I’d heard that word more than a few times now. As far as I could gather, it was the name of the place where that thing shoved a gigantic worm down my throat. Priscilla wouldn’t clarify, and I hadn’t seen Arjola again since my first day of physical therapy.

“I don’t even know what the fuck that is! How the fuck am I gonna whistleblow on you if I don’t have any information?”

Karla returned to poring over her clipboard. She was just stonewalling me now.

“Come on. Isn’t there something I can do?”

Again she stonewalled me.

“Dr. Artmund, I want to go home. Please, I’ll do anything.”

Karla’s eye twitched. She jotted something down on the clipboard and then lobbed her pen at my head. I ducked in time for it to sail over and land behind my bed.

“What the hell was that for?”

“I told you to be quiet. You’re being a brat. It’s annoying as hell.” Her tone sounded calm, but the expression on her face was wrathful.

Karla turned around and marched out of the room. When I tried to follow, I found that she had locked the door behind her. I paced back and forth in the doorway, trying to think of a way out of this mess. After a couple of minutes, Priscilla entered. A scowl was stretched across her face. She was panting.

“I don’t know what you did, but Karla’s real pissed,” Priscilla explained between breaths.

“Why should I give a shit how she feels? I’m being kept prisoner here,” I replied.

“Just shut up for a minute, okay? You might’ve just fucked yourself over here.”

Before I could ask what she meant, Karla returned with a cart and a bag full of supplies. On the cart there were a few tools, but they didn’t look medical. There was a flip lighter, a knife, and a pair of waterproof hiking boots.

“Looks like we found a new candidate to lead an expedition into the Mesoverse,” Karla said. “You’re going to want to change into these boots, and there is suitable clothing for the expedition in the bag, as well as rations. You have a half hour.”

I gave both of them a dumbfounded look. Karla turned to Priscilla and said something. I didn’t pay attention. She left, leaving Priscilla and me to begin preparations for the expedition. Priscilla led me to the bed and helped me sit down.

“You really pooched it, Melanie,” She said. Disappointment rang on her voice. “This is a death sentence. People don’t come back from the Mesoverse.”

“I did once before…” Knowing I would probably would die in that dank twisted hellhole was hardly comforting.

“Yeah, with a parasite eating your stomach, and a beast trying to break your mind. You were likely in the lowest stratum, based on what you described, and you’re still lucky to be alive. If you go higher than the Song Stratum, you will die.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I guess we can try to apologize to Karla. Maybe she’s feeling merciful today,” Priscilla trailed off. She didn’t pick up her train of thought for a minute. “Wait. Wait wait wait. I have an idea. I think Arjola is home right now.”

“That blue haired girl?”

Priscilla nodded. She ran to the door and before leaving, she turned around and said, “Change into one of the outfits in the backpack. It’ll be better than your dress. I’m gonna go get Arly. Be back in a sec.”

I did what she advised. If I was going to be doing a lot of walking in the Mesoverse, I at least shouldn’t have problems with chafing. The boots I was provided with were surprisingly comfortable. They were waterproof, and were much lighter than they looked. The hiking clothes were pretty comfortable, all things considered. I wouldn’t be opposed to wearing stuff like this more often if they weren’t also extremely unfashionable.

Priscilla came back with Arjola in tow. Arjola was wearing the same white dress I had been wearing a few minutes ago.

“Oh, you would like me to help Melanie get out of the Mesoverse? Does Dr. Artmund know?”

Priscilla scratched the back of her head. “Well Arly, you’ve always wanted to see more of the outside world right?”

Arjola nodded. “Dr. Artmund said I am on probation again, and may not go outside for six months though.”

“Why don’t you just go with Melanie?”

“But won’t that make Dr. Artmund mad?”

“Yeah, probably, but I’m sure Melanie would show you all sorts of things in the outside world, won’t you Melanie?”

I took a moment to nod. If survival meant I would have to babysit the weird blue haired kid, I guess that was a sacrifice I would have to make. “Yeah. I’ll introduce you to my parents. You could go to school with me, or we could go see all sorts of fascinating things around the world. You’ll love it.”

Arjola put a hand to her chin and hummed. She had seen Priscilla do that when she was thinking before. “But what if Dr. Artmund gets mad at me?”

“Arjola, haven’t you realized she’s only nice to you when she needs you to use your abilities for her?” Priscilla looked a little frustrated.

Arjola noddded. “Yes. But she said I am a good girl.”

“Arjola. You remember Elliandre, don’t you?”

A dark look was cast over Arjola’s face. I had never seen her angry before, but I think that’s the best way to describe what she was feeling.

“Yes, Dr. Arden. I will go with Melanie,” She mechanically said.

“Good. Just give me a second.” Priscilla pulled her wallet out of her lab coat pocket and dug a crumpled receipt out of it. She scrawled something onto it in pen and then handed it to Arjola. I couldn’t see what it was very well, but it looked like some weird satanic symbol.

“Draw this with your blood to leave the Mesoverse, Arly,” Priscilla explained. “I’ll make a portal for you once it’s safe. Meanwhile, you need to stay put once you’re inside Melanie. I’ll get Arjola to you as soon as I can.”

I nodded. I didn’t really understand what was going on, but I nodded anyway.

<><><>

When the time came to be left for dead in the Mesoverse, two armed guards came to my room and escorted me to a blank room. Karla and Priscilla were both there. Priscilla was carrying a few vials of blood. Karla took one of them and drew that satanic looking symbol on the wall.   
Nothing happened for a while. At one point, I looked back at the hallway, ahead of me. It had become significantly longer. I was pretty certain it wasn’t just a mirage either. This place creeped me out. I hoped Priscilla and Arjola would keep up their end of the bargain. 

After the circle was finished, a small black dot appeared at its center. Then it spread slowly, engulfing the whole circle, until it was large enough for me to walk through without having to duck. The light in the room reflected off of the surface of the hole, almost as if it were water. When I poked it with my finger, I didn’t feel wet, but it rippled anyway. After I pulled the backpack on, I was shoved through the hole by the armed guards.

The other side of the strange hole was the same dimly lit hallway I had been in a few months ago. It looked just like the place where I was infected by that gigantic worm. Behind me, the portal began to close. I was truly trapped here.

Karla had explained that I had a device that would allow me to send audio logs back to the lab, and that I was to use it once every 24 hours, but I didn’t really care about that. I sat down on the floor and leaned against the opposite wall of the one I entered from. 

I ended up dozing off before anyone showed up. I woke up to something poking me in the back. Arjola was crouched next to me with a curious expression. I don’t remember lying down, but that’s how I was when I woke up. I sat up and stretched my arms.

“We are ready, Melanie. I believe I can guide you to the outside world,” Arjola said.

“So how’s this work?” 

“I am part Mesoversal. You are too, but you still must learn what you’re able to do.”

I sighed. I still didn’t like that descriptor, Mesoversal. It made me feel subhuman. Arjola took my hand and started leading my through the labyrinth of hallways. After hours of walking, ascending almost six floors, and drinking two liters of water, we made it to a spot Arjola found suitable. She stopped walking and tried to bite her finger, but she couldn’t draw any blood that way.

“Here.” I handed her a knife I had been given in the backpack for this expedition.

She pricked her index finger and began working on the rune, but she wasn’t able to draw enough blood like that. She had to dig the knife in deeper to draw enough blood to finish the rune. Just like before, the portal appeared like a circle of water. Together we stepped through, into a verdant forest.

It was summer. I had been away so long that I’d missed two seasons. Arjola looked around. “I thought this was a city,” She murmured.

“It’s okay. We’ll find our way.”


End file.
